


Stupid Cupid: A SweetVee Valentine's Day Story

by elegantmoonchild



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Blind Date, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, High School, One Shot, Secret Admirer, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-18 17:37:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13686513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elegantmoonchild/pseuds/elegantmoonchild
Summary: Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, and no one is more unenthusiastic about it than Veronica Lodge. Freshly dumped and without a date, her best friend Betty Cooper sets her up on a blind encounter with one of her boyfriend’s closest pals, but the dinner doesn’t go as planned, and soon Veronica and Sweet Pea are lodging insults across the table like a verbal food fight.The next day, the duo find themselves locked in yet another awkward partnership, assigned to research and enact a romantic couple throughout time at the Riverdale High Valentine’s Day Fair, and it’s not long before the two butt heads at historic new heights. Veronica is just about to give up on the idea of romance and chivalry before she begins receiving small tokens of affection in her locker, one for each day of the holiday week.Will she discover the identity of her secret admirer before the bell tolls on the 14th or will she succumb to the hostile, yet magnetic chemistry between her and her opposing classmate? In “Stupid Cupid,” things may not be as rose-colored as they seem, and Veronica just might learn thatlove can be a major pain in the ass.





	Stupid Cupid: A SweetVee Valentine's Day Story

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!!! I appreciate all of the excitement I've received about this little one shot. If I was going to write a V Day one shot, it had to be for SweetVee, am I right??? They are my crackship, my babies, and they deserve a proper Valentine's Day!
> 
> A big thank you to my fandom Valentine, Morgan (@youbuildmeupbeliever) for always being so supportive and encouraging during my writing process!

The wind was chilly, the ground damp with frost, and the halls of Riverdale High were bustling with the excitement and thrill as the six remaining days left before Valentine’s Day dangled over each student like a snow cloud. Sneakers squeaked on the wet tile, coats were pulled in tighter over well-knit sweaters to combat the cold, and still the chattering of teenage mouths were caused more by the impending holiday than the chill of winter.

To some, there was a level of joy and anticipation that arrived with Valentine’s Day, a red and pink mist that glistened with the promise of first kisses, shared dinners, and intimate cuddling, the hallmarks of a couple happy in hormonal love or lust. To others, the haze of the holiday took on a darker form, a more gray, sour appearance that could loom above like a storm cloud, the threat of loneliness and humiliation a high possibility enhanced by the very public displays of affection that would undoubtedly fill the hallways of Riverdale High in less than a week.

Veronica Lodge found herself cowering in the latter category, left single and unaccompanied for the first time in years.

It had been five months since Archie Andrews had broken her heart, left her stranded outside by the football field as the autumn wind whipped around them, her soft tears threatening to cascade down her tortured eyes to drench her River Vixens uniform.

_It’s not you, it’s me, Ronnie_ , he promised. _I’m the one that’s screwed up. I’m the one that’s distracted. I’m the one who’s undeserving._

And yet, it didn’t take long for him to find himself a replacement to warm him up as the winter breached the evening air. Three weeks later, and it was Valerie Brown that clung to his side while walking down the main hall at school, her taunting eyes boring holes into Veronica’s gaping wide jaw as they glided right past her.

For a fleeting moment, Veronica found herself wounded and speechless. _How could he do this to me?_ she asked herself, her heart splintering into five separate chunks in her chest. It took one measured glance from Kevin beside her and the cluck of her tongue before she pulled herself together.

_Nobody dumps a Lodge._

And so she spent the remaining months between now and then gluing back the parts of Veronica she had put aside to accommodate for the larger-than-life energy of Archie Andrews.

She had gone on a few dates, albeit some of the affection misplaced. She thought she saw the appeal in hulky and hunky Chuck Clayton, but found their conversation to be stagnant and his kisses to be too sloppy. Then there was the series of curious exchanges with a player on the Riverdale High baseball team, but Veronica lost interest immediately when he couldn’t keep his mitts on and off the field to himself.

Christmas swept by, and soon the decorations of red and green and silver were replaced with the pink and whites of Valentine’s, and Veronica secretly dreaded the prospect of being alone on the one holiday where romance was celebrated. Despite her shrewd sense in fashion and her sharp tongue, Veronica had a heart made like a marshmallow, full of fluff that could stretch and fill with more affection than seemed possible.

Only one person could sense her anxiety with the holiday, and that was her keen and observant friend, Betty Cooper. Using that whip-smart brain of hers, Betty concocted a ploy to set Veronica up on a blind date with a man not of Veronica’s choosing. She explained that perhaps it was Veronica’s taste in guys that needed amending, and the thought of her choice left a dry taste in the Lodge girl’s mouth.

_Who in the Hell is going to show up to this dinner?_

Veronica tapped her perfectly manicured fingernails against the cloth surface of the restaurant table, clicking impatiently that Sunday night as she fought against the urge to check her phone for the hundredth time.

_How can one person be this late to a date?_

She had been left to sip her sparkling water for over twenty minutes, her eyes taking in nearly every detail already of the swanky establishment located in another city just fifteen minutes from Riverdale. Its candle-lit and red draped atmosphere just _screamed_ romance, almost to a level that Veronica considered overkill, but this was where Betty had sent her to so she had to accept the venue for what it was.

She was about to give up and call car service to fetch her from her location when suddenly a tall and shadowed figure, bedecked in leather and the musk of cigarettes and aftershave, folded a pair of long legs into the chair across from her. It took a second for him to sit up straight, but soon she was looking into a set of chocolate brown eyes framed by a thick line of brow broken down the middle to form a well-distinguished nose that buttoned out at the tip to reveal two wide nostrils. His jaw was well-shaped, a bit jutted just under the ears, and his lips were pink and plump, the bottom set rounded and almost bee-stung in appearance.

After her moment of being transfixed by his startlingly handsome appearance, she began to realize exactly who it was she was staring at, the man twenty one minutes late for a date she didn’t even really want to go on in the first place.

_Sweet Pea._

The biker buddy of Betty’s boyfriend Jughead lifted a brow up at her, confused by her loss of reply, and the rush of blood cleared from her ears for the first time since his arrival. She quickly deduced that he had spoken to her and she had missed every word.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“I said, how are you? And then I pointed to that basket of bread and asked if you were going to eat any of it.”

At first, she was still somewhat floating in a daze, caught off guard by her sudden attraction to a guy from school she had seen skulking in the hallways, but then reality slammed into her like a tidal wave.

This guy was late. This guy was wearing a leather jacket and denim jeans in a fancy restaurant. This guy was more concerned with eating the stale bread in front of her than apologizing for his tardiness.

“No, I think I’ve already had my fill. I’ve been here for nearly half an hour already,” she replied, a bit of ice staining her words like frost.

“Yeah, well, damn bike wouldn’t start in this weather. I had to give it some time to warm up.”

Her mouth hung open, aghast. “You rode your motorcycle here? It’s nearly 20 degrees dry, let alone with the chance of freezing rain we’re supposed to get.”

He offered her a casual shrug as he reached into the basket with hands that she wasn’t sure had been washed or not, retrieving a roll that he immediately split in two. He reached across to her side of the table for the butter dish, but she was quicker, handing it to him with the knife perched dangerously over the rim.

Already, the attraction she experienced upon his arrival was quickly diminishing, his Neanderthal-like table manners turning her off quicker than the tacky interior of the restaurant.

“I’m used to it. You don’t really have much of a choice when it’s the only vehicle you own.”

“What do you do when it rains? Don’t the roads get slick?”

He smirked as he worked to butter his roll. “It’s called experience, princess. It’s nothing a little maneuvering can’t avoid.”

She shook her head mentally in annoyance. Though Veronica wasn’t a skilled mechanic by any means, even she could recognize two wheels on a wet and icy road was a recipe for injury. She cleared her throat with another sip of her sparkling water as she tried to change the subject into territory they could both agree on.

“Interesting choice for a date, wouldn’t you say? I wonder where Betty got the idea to pair us two up together.”

She saw his lips quirk into something of a fast frown before they were disguised by the chewing of the roll, his words nearly muffled by the large measure of bite he had taken.

“Not really. I mean, you’re her best friend. I’m friends with Jughead. Only makes sense to me.”

She rolled her eyes, irritated at the logic he was spewing and the sight of him talking while eating. “Yes, but, we really don’t have anything in common.”

He swallowed his bite and cocked his head to the side in thought. “I guess you could say that.”

And then he looked her up and down for the first time that whole evening, leaving her feeling completely exposed and a bit nervous. “You’re a bit more _Park Avenue_ than my preferred taste.”

Her lips turned up in a smirk while her brow furrowed together, taken aback by his own brand of wit. “And you’re a little too _grease monkey_ for mine.”

She thought he was about to chuckle, but the moment was interrupted by the presence of their waiter. Sweet Pea quickly perused the laminated menu tucked under his bread plate while she rattled off her choice to the waiter, her mind settled on a particular dish twenty minutes ago when she had been waiting for Sweet Pea to show up.

In the end, her date had ended up echoing her order, and they both fell into an odd silence filled only by the muffled sounds of his bread mastication.

For the next forty minutes, the two of them bickered their way through a course of salmon with rice, neither of them agreeing to what would be another thirty minutes of dessert, their tempers both flaring after going back and forth on infuriating topics like high school politics, the vast differences between the Northside and the Southside, and Veronica’s brief attempt to bring up fashion to a man who obviously could give two shits about Balmain vs. Balenciaga.

They huffed their goodbyes as Veronica scrambled from the table, her cell phone fast in her hand as she began to text out a stream of curses to her best friend. _How could Betty have thought this would be a match made in any sort of high school Heaven?_

She was steaming so sharply, she didn’t bother to wait for him to leave the table and follow her out.

*****

The next day in history class, Veronica found herself groaning with irritation when she spotted Sweet Pea stalking toward the back of the room just as the bell was ringing, signaling the start to the class. Though nothing too uncomfortable had transpired between them, the mere thought that they had literally and figuratively broke bread together, alone, the night before was enough to make her shrink inwardly.

Their first encounter and it had gone sourly. _Maybe if he hadn’t been such an ass,_ she cursed to herself, remembering all of the many ways he had tried to cut her down in conversation. His low ball insults at her intelligence, his insinuations that money couldn’t buy street smarts, and his eye rolling anytime her parents were brought up – the combination of those three verbal dishes left a poor taste in her mouth for the biker who thought he possessed an ounce of charm. She scoffed at his attempt at swagger throughout their dinner, boasting about his various accomplishments at the Whyte Wyrm, his ability to whoop the ass of his fellow Serpents at a round of pool less than thrilling to her uninterested ears.

_A biker at a bar playing pool. How shocking._

When her lack of fascination was more than evident to his watchful eyes, Sweet Pea switched off the charm and exchanged it for mere vitriol, spewing more insults at her with a clever tongue, more clever than she had anticipated from someone who seemed to have such low-brow taste in anything.

As he walked past her, his eyes carried straight forward, almost purposefully, and she sneered at his attempt to act like she didn’t exist.

_The least he can do is acknowledge we know each other._

Though why Veronica even cared that much was beyond her. She tossed it up to pure Lodge pride.

When he took his seat, digging into his back pocket first for a rolled up spiral notebook and pen, his eyes drifted upward to meet hers and she realized quickly he hadn’t ignored her at all. _He was baiting her._ He offered her a calculated smirk and she tossed her head back around to the front of the classroom, eager to forget the warmth of her cheeks that was beginning to blush.

_That pompous ass._

As Miss Haggly droned on about their latest assignment, Veronica couldn’t help the flood of thoughts that seeped into her brain with regards to Sweet Pea. She tried to brush them off, but ultimately blamed it on the time of year as her mind wandered to questions that veered too close to interest.

_Why did he want her to look? Why did she care? Why was he so keen on pissing her off? Why does he chew his pens like that? What would his lips feel like chewing on hers?_

Suddenly, Veronica realized her train of thought had brought her eye to eye, once more, with the guy in her reverie, her neck craning back to watch him from across the room. His eyebrow was cocked and the corner of his mouth upturned slightly in something of a half-smirk, half-grin that she found way more admiring than she wanted to admit.

“Miss Lodge?”

Veronica shook her thoughts clear and turned back around to the front, where at least ten pairs of curious eyes, including her teacher’s, were locked right on her.

“I’m sorry?” she replied.

“I said you and Mr. Culpepper will be partners in the project for the Fair.”

Veronica furrowed her brow in confusion. “Who’s Mr. Culpepper?”

“Me,” she heard a familiar voice boom from the back of the classroom. This time, when she faced Sweet Pea, she found nothing but annoyance written clear on his face. Whether it was the assignment, or the use of his birth name, she wasn’t quite sure of the cause.

“We’re adding in a few couples from literature, and I’d like you two to be Beatrice and Benedick from William Shakespeare’s _Much Ado About Nothing_. I think you’ll find enough resources in the library for your pairing.”

Veronica and Sweet Pea collectively groaned, quickly realizing this meant they’d have to work together on an assignment due that Friday, the day of the Fair. Veronica spent the rest of the class passing notes with Betty, who was filling her in on the details of the assignment, drowned out by Veronica during her earlier daydreams.

The project was to include a combined written report and a tri-fold display that spoke about the nature and effect of the romance throughout history. There was the option to dress up the part as well, but Veronica had a hard time believing she’d be able to convince Sweet Pea to don a doublet and a codpiece.

_Ugh,_ she thought, realizing this meant they were going to have to talk to each other.

When the bell chimed and students quickly flooded out of the classroom and into the hall, Veronica heard the deep sound of her name called out from a few feet behind her. It took three strides of his long legs to get Sweet Pea to catch up to her, his towering figure looming over her short stature as he stopped just a few inches away from her.

“When do you want to get together and work on this project?” He rolled his notebook in his hands, and for a moment she thought he might be nervous.

“When did you become so studious all of a sudden?” she scoffed, an insulting laugh on her lips. Surely he didn’t care all that much about group schoolwork. He didn’t seem like the teamwork type.

“Hey, I pay attention in class, _unlike you_ ,” he tossed back at her, his brow raising suggestively. She felt the heat in her cheeks begin to rise again.

“I see and know more than you think,” she retorted, aiming her own suggestive tone right back at him, her eyes darting to the notebook that was now nearly coming apart around the metal spiral, it had been tugged so tight by the wringing of his hands.

He quickly pulled the notebook out of her line of sight, tucking it back into the pocket of his jeans behind him, and she considered that _point one_ _for Veronica Lodge._

“So, again – when do you want to work on this? I don’t have a lot of free time to waste.” His voice was gruff and she could sense the irritation, which just made her own grow fivefold in response.

“You don’t even need to worry. I can handle the report. You just need to find some images and print them out for the display.”

“I can do more than that, Veronica,” he chided, the slits of his eyes growing narrower as he started to realize she expected his level of contribution to be minimal. “Why do you insist on thinking I don’t give a shit about schoolwork?”

“It’s hard to tell when the only source of conversation you can offer is about playing pool in a smoky room while tossing back beer after beer. How are you even able to drink in that place? Aren’t you only 16?”

“Serpents don’t snitch,” he threw back at her defensively. “That’s not even the point. I came to plan something for this project and I’d like to get it done sooner rather than later. I have plans this week.”

Her ears perked up. _Surely this guy doesn’t already have a Valentine’s date and I’m still single? We just went on a date less than 24 hours ago._

“Got a hot date?” she posed, cursing herself seconds later for letting the thought slip through her lips.

He cocked his head to the side, his irritated scowl replaced with something resembling a pleased grin. “Why? Jealous?”

She rolled her eyes, but even she could see the act made her transparent. “No. This just happens to be a very important week. I put two and two together.”

He shrugged, a noncommittal action that left her more curious than before. “Maybe. It’s not that hard to imagine I could get a date by Friday.”

“Sure seemed like it was hard, seeing as how you had to get your friend to set you up on a blind date.”

_Return of the scowl, perfect,_ Veronica goaded in her mind, happy to see she was getting under his skin for once. “That makes both of us desperate, princess. Or was I just dreaming that you were sitting across that table from me?”

_Point one: Sweet Pea._

Veronica was growing tired of this exchange. She tossed her raven-colored hair back and shot him a serious stare, her lips in a thin line and her eyes intent and focused on his. “Fine. Meet me in the library after cheer, four thirty on the dot. Don’t be late again or I’ll leave your ass behind.”

She turned on her heel and stomped down the hall, heading for her locker to exchange her history book for her lunch bag, thankful she had the full thirty minute break. He had already wasted enough of her time after the bell. At least she didn’t have to worry about a tardy slip on her record.

She plugged in the combination for her locker and popped it open, instantly flooded with a series of paper hearts strung together in colors of red and white, each one with a variety of words scribbled on the front. She was taken aback, obviously not expecting the sweetheart surprise, but her smile spread quickly across her lips. She fingered the paper and began reading some of the expressions and sentiments.

_Hearts for a sweetheart. U R gorgeous. Pearl of my eye._

She felt an intent pair of eyes on her form and she glanced up, locking onto Sweet Pea down the hall who was watching her with his arms crossed over his chest. She stuck her tongue out at him. _You’re not the only one who can get a new date in the span of a day._

She turned her attention back to the string of hearts and searched for a “From” on the paper. Nothing. No mention of where this lovely surprise originated, no sign of any signature or greeting other than the sugary words on the hearts.

_Must be Cupid_ , she squealed to herself, folding the hearts up and setting them inside her clutch, anxious to show Betty and Kevin in the cafeteria. She slammed her locker back into place and nearly skipped down the hall to greet her friends, the gift from her secret admirer practically glowing as red as her cheeks inside her purse.

*****

Sweet Pea was more punctual this time around, perched on top of a wooden table in the back of the library, his knee bent and foot settled on the thin cushion of one of the chairs that flanked it. For emphasis, he held a watch in his hand as if he were counting down the seconds until her arrival.

_Smart ass._

“Four twenty-nine and ten seconds left, princess. You nearly had me sweatin’ there,” he called out, the sarcasm ripe on his tongue.

“Let’s just get this over with,” she scowled, shoving her purse down into a vacant chair on the other side of the table, missing the way his clever eyes scanned her curves in the form-fitting shape made by her cheerleading uniform.

His torso turned and he slid off the table, settling down less than gracefully into the chair across from her. He yanked out his notebook, tucked inside his jacket this time, and slammed it down onto the surface top ceremoniously.

“So where do we begin?”

“Have you even read _Much Ado About Nothing?_ ” she asked, an accusatory tone lacing her sentence as she shot it out at him from across the table.

“I’ve read what I need to know,” he shrugged. “Enough to do this assignment.”

Veronica released a heavy sigh. Clearly, this was going to take more work than she anticipated. _So much for him being a worthy contributor._

“Beatrice and Benedick are, arguably, the main romantic pairing in the play. They feed off of the other’s insults, playing this verbal tug-of-war, of sorts, before they give way to their romantic feelings, encouraged by the spurned heartache of her cousin, Hero, from Benedick’s friend and fellow soldier, Claudio. Of course, the whole thing’s a mess because there’s all this miscommunication and an awful villain who’s done his best to tear the two lovers apart. In the end, B & B give in to their romance, even hinting that Benedick plans to marry her the same day Hero and Claudio are finally wed. Does that about sum it up for you?”

“Two hotheads who dance around their feelings for each other, too stupid to realize how they feel from the get-go? Got it. That’s not too hard to understand for this assignment.”

There was something in his tone that had her nerves sliding down into her stomach, but she ignored the sensation and pushed through toward splitting up the display and parts of the research paper for them to each do.

They spent the next hour looking up a few books that discussed the literary effects of the play on other romantic pairings in future works of fiction, flavored by the tumultuous romantic sparring of their assigned couple. They managed to keep the argument count to a minimum, mostly working in silence as they jotted down notes and made photocopies of pictures from the internet of various theatre companies that had performed the play. Veronica made a mental note to purchase a tri-fold display and glue sticks from the store on the way home.

“What about the costume portion of this presentation?” Veronica broached, expecting his quick rebuttal, and she was left without disappointment, watching his face erupt into an irritated snarl.

“There’s no way in Hell you’re getting me into a pair of tights, Veronica.”

“What if I said you could wear a cape? I’m sure I could drum one up from the theatre department.”

“No.”

“I appreciate your cooperation, Sweet Pea. I thought you said you gave a shit about your schoolwork?”

He pointed to the notes and sheets of copied pages that lay in a neat stack beside her. “ _That’s_ schoolwork. Putting on pantyhose and some weird puffy blouse is bullshit, the kind I didn’t sign up for. Can’t we just make some t-shirts or something?”

She rolled her eyes, knowing he wasn’t going to budge on this. “Fine. I’ll come up with something clever and hope it won’t hurt our grade too much.”

“Haggly already said costumes were optional.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t do anything half-ass, Sweet Pea.” She clucked her tongue as she gathered the papers into her purse. “Or should I call you _Mr. Culpepper?_ ”

He sneered at her, his shoulders beginning to hunch. “Don’t call me that.”

“What’s your actual first name, anyway?” she continued, flavoring her tone with a hint of playfulness, hoping it would taper down some of his bristled reaction.

It worked, resulting in a smirk with the slight upturn curve from the corner of his mouth. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”

She snorted as she stood from her chair. “I’m not afraid of you.”

“Oh yeah? Maybe you really aren’t smarter than that Andrews kid.”

This time, it was Veronica who felt her guard go up, walls breaking through the earth to soar into the sky. “Don’t bring him up.”

He cocked an eyebrow curiously. “Why? He’s such a whiny pain in the ass. You’re lucky you got rid of him.”

She huffed as she hoisted her purse strap onto her shoulder and began to cross toward the library exit. Sweet Pea was hot on her heels. “Yeah, well, I guess fate did me a favor then because I didn’t break up with him. He had that honor.”

She could feel a sudden wet heat form around her eyelids and she realized it was tears, the result of her frustration and humiliation threatening to spill over and ruin her mascara. She tried to pick up her pace as she pushed her way through the library doors.

Veronica felt the firm grip of a hand latch onto her upper arm, tugging her back an inch. She turned quickly at the touch, feeling a sharp spark of something she couldn’t quite describe, but the thought was hastily brushed aside when she remembered it was Sweet Pea who had a hold of her arm.

“What are you doing?” she yelped, attempting to rip her arm out of his hold.

“Veronica, I didn’t mean to upset you. You deserve better than that fucking wimp.”

In a flurry of thoughts, she couldn’t quite pick out which caused her to relax in his grip – the comfort of his words, the softness in his voice, or the kind understanding there in the rich chocolate brown of his eyes. She sniffled lightly as the tears receded back into her skull.

“Thank you.”

He licked his lips, their gaze still frozen, and then he cleared his throat and released his grip on her arm, lowering his hand to dangle down by his hip. “Don’t mention it.”

*****

The next few days sped by in a haze of pink and white as wardrobes and décor continued to ring in the impending holiday, and Veronica felt both disappointed and overjoyed when she would open her locker to find a new addition to her admirer’s gifts, still with no discernible signature or calling card.

On day two, there was a giant box of chocolates with a paper heart decorated in various shades of plum and ivory with the words ‘nothing could be as sweet as you’ written in some sort of calligraphy and black ink. On day three, there was the red vase filled with pink carnations and white roses, a blue and green ribbon tied and curling around the vase rim.

When day four arrived, she was greeted at the start of the school day with a cascade of red balloons as they pooled out of her open locker, floating up toward the high ceiling of the school hallway. She managed to catch one or two before they drifted too high, and read on the string a tiny card that said ‘you get me high with your smile.’ She giggled at the wording, biting back a huge grin as her teeth clenched into her bottom lip.

The sight had drawn quite the crowd, nearly twenty students stopping in the middle of the hall to watch the flurry of latex and helium soar above them, heralding the holiday on Valentine’s Day Eve.

Even Sweet Pea wasn’t too scaly to smile, his grin captured by her curious eye as they stood across the hall from each other.

In the few days they had spent together while working on their project, Veronica felt herself growing more and more interested in the Serpent, whose personality she had once compared to sandpaper. His crass humor and abrasive comebacks seemed to ease, as if the sting had been lessened by the more time they spent together, and she started to see the soft underbelly beneath the rough skin he had shed.

She learned there was more to the man than met the eye, more sensitivity beyond the bite of his tongue and wit, and when he laughed for the first time in front of her, a true genuine sound brought about by a piece of glued paper that just wouldn’t stray from Veronica’s fingers, she felt her icy exterior melting into a puddle by his feet.

She knew one more chuckle, one more sincere smile, and she’d be toast.

Her only problem now was warring between these new emotions she felt for Sweet Pea and the conflicting excitement she felt when she received a new gift from her secret admirer. _Just who was sending her all of these presents?_

She was still stumped, left with no answers, by the morning of Valentine’s Day. She arrived to find her locker was empty, completely gift-free, and she had to hold back the urge to feel deflated. She had hoped her admirer would have revealed his ( _or her_ ) identity by the start of the day, but it seemed her patience was being tested.

When it came time for their history presentation for the fair after lunch, the students from Miss Haggly’s class filed into the cafeteria and set up their displays. Veronica and Sweet Pea donned the homemade t-shirts fashioned by one of the print shops in town, each of them displaying an expression – Veronica with “Love’s a Beatrice” and Sweet Pea with “Love’s a Benedick.”

Veronica thought they were clever, a bit tongue-in-cheek, and it elicited another laugh from Sweet Pea, which concluded in a fair win for her regardless of their grade. Plus, it was worth it just to see the normally grimacing biker boy act out Shakespearean lines with a giant heart on his shirt.

Just as the fair was winding down, and Veronica was taking apart their display, Sweet Pea had excused himself, grumbling something about needing to be somewhere, and Veronica felt her heart fall just beneath her navel.

_Of course. He said he had plans._

She trudged out of the cafeteria and down to her locker when a sudden sight stopped her in her tracks.

There, not thirty feet away, was Sweet Pea digging into the open cavern of her locker, a string of what looked like old letters tied together with thin bits of red string, similar to the one she received on Monday. When he heard her approach, he slammed the door shut suddenly, catching the letters half inside the locker.

“Oh shit. Hey Veronica,” he called out casually, but he knew he had been caught. She stalked toward him, her eyes narrowed as she tried to piece together the picture.

“What are you doing, Sweet Pea?”

He started to utter a handful of odd syllables before he finally sighed and released the string of letters from his hand, letting them dangle to the ground.

“I was putting this gift into your locker. I… well…”

“Wait – _you’re_ the one that’s been sending me gifts? _You’re my secret admirer?_ ”

His cheeks grew flush and he looked to the ground, a hint of a sheepish smile evident on his lips. “Yeah, I, uh… I guess so.”

“But,” she stuttered, taking another step toward him. “But I thought you hated me.”

He shrugged his shoulder, taking a brief pause to collect his words. “I never hated you, Veronica. You may have gotten on my nerves a bit,” and he shot her a playful smirk, suddenly emboldened by his ability to confess, “but I never hated you. In fact, I was the one who told Betty and Jughead to set us up for that date.”

Veronica felt her jaw drop. “Seriously?”

Sweet Pea brought one hand up to rake through his dark hair, catching Veronica’s eye and making her mouth run dry at the sight. “Yeah.”

“But _why?_ We never talk.”

“I’ve actually had a thing for you for a while now. I just never got the chance to get to know you better when you were still with Andrews. And then you got with Chuck and that other douche from the baseball team. It just seemed like you were out of my league. Setting us up on that blind date seemed like the only chance I was going to get to have you alone, spend some time getting to know who you really were.”

She snorted. “And that went really well.”

“Yeah, totally not how I intended that night to go. But you were so pissed and I’m a man with a lot of pride so there’s no way I could say I was sorry.” He leaned down and picked up the string of letters. “This was my next best idea. I thought maybe I could _show_ you how much I actually care.”

She bent forward to peer at the letters on the paper, which she could see now were tiny typed quotes from _Much Ado About Nothing_ , one written specifically in red marker that said ‘I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.’

Suddenly, Veronica felt her knees go weak.

“You made this for me?”

“And the other gifts. Plus, there’s a charm bracelet in your locker. I just didn’t have time to finish this one up before you found me.”

She peered up at him with wide, curious eyes, struck with a thought. “Were you ever going to tell me it was you?”

He bit the inside of his cheek before offering her another genuine grin. “Eventually. I guess I was going to see how long I could go before I had to break down and fess up.”

She considered all of the past events of the week as they stood there in that hall, awkwardly gazing at each other and at the ground with the letters still sticking halfway out of her closed locker. He had made the time and put in so much effort to demonstrate how much he cared. _That’s why he said he had plans this week._ He had been busy manufacturing these sentimental shows of affection for her.

And then it donned on her. Her secret admirer and the guy from her history class, the two entities she had been crushing on independently, were now one in the same.

_This Valentine’s Day couldn’t get any sweeter._

“So what now?” she asked, peering up at him through thick black eyelashes, biting down on her lip with nerves that began to bubble in her chest.

His eyes shot up to hers and his lips parted in a wide smile before he offered another signature Sweet Pea shrug. “Pop’s?”

She nodded and smiled. “That sounds nice.”

He turned to open her locker back up to retrieve the full string of letters and the gift wrapped box containing the charm bracelet. Just as he was closing the door and turning to face her, she took a step in and closed the gap between them. Her lips met his in a soft brush, a gentle stroke of warmth and new feelings, both of their eyes closed as they gave in to the sensation of blossoming bliss.

When they broke apart, and Veronica landed from tiptoes to solid footing, she smiled up at him with eyes sparkling anew.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Sweet Pea.”

 

 


End file.
